Feb. 24, 2017, 11:20 a.m.

The Feb. 24 White House press briefing, normally open to all reporters with press credentials, was an exclusive event for certain outlets handpicked by the administration.

Friday's White House press briefing, normally an on-camera affair open to all reporters with press credentials, was turned into an exclusive event for certain outlets hand-picked by the administration.

The action came after President Trump on Friday described the media and what he terms "fake news" as "the enemy of the people."On the list were Trump-friendly outlets such as Breitbart News, the Washington Times and OANN, a conservative television network that employs former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a commentator.

Off the list were some of Trump's favorite targets, including the New York Times and CNN. The Los Angeles Times was also excluded.

Feb. 24, 2017, 11:56 a.m.

After several days of relative silence on Twitter, President Trump’s feed came alive Friday with a direct attack on the FBI.

Yes, he’s done this before. But recent news reports that suggest his administration pressed the FBI to quell claims that members of his campaign had contact with Russians throughout the 2016 election appear to have inspired a response.

“The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security ‘leakers’ that have permeated our government for a long time,” he tweeted.

As the crowd waited to hear President Trump speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, little red-white-and-blue flags appeared without warning, handed down the aisles by a man with a green bag, according to a witness.

The flags said "Trump." They also happened to be the flag of the Russian Federation.

"He was dressed like any one of us," said Tyler Dever, 20, a student at the University of South Florida in Tampa, who was wearing a suit. "He passed them to me and was like, 'Pass them down, pass them down.' "

Feb. 24, 2017, 9:58 a.m.

It was a cool and rainy day when elders of the Republican tribe recently gathered to honor one of their own.

The honoree, Stuart K. Spencer, was unmistakable in his white duck pants and a lime-green sport coat so bright it almost hurt to see. A reformed chain-smoker, he snapped merrily away on a wad of chewing gum.

The event marked Spencer's 90th birthday, but the mood beneath the surface conviviality was unsettled and gray, like the clouds fringing the mountains outside.

Feb. 24, 2017, 10:30 a.m.

Throughout the fall campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump and his allies loved the USC/L.A. Times "Daybreak" poll -- the only major survey that consistently showed him winning.

"A couple polls got it right. I must say Los Angeles Times did a great job, shocking because, you know, they did a great job," Trump declared in his speech this morning at CPAC, the annual gathering of conservative activists.

Feb. 24, 2017, 9:06 a.m.

Supporters cheer President Trump as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Friday. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

President Trump loves CPAC, and CPAC loves Trump.

As hundreds of Conservative Political Action Conference attendees spilled out into the hallways Friday after Trump's speech to the group, they had glowing reviews of the man who has been tormenting Democrats and the media and transforming the Republican Party.

"It was fantastic, unbelievable, absolute truth," said Shia L. Lome, 84, a retired Air Force colonel from Deerfield Beach, Fla., appraising Trump's remarks. "If he carries through [his promises], this will be the greatest country ever."

Feb. 24, 2017, 8:59 a.m.

President Trump shows up at conservatives' most prominent gathering and defines a new GOP.

President Trump made one of his strongest pitches Friday to unite the Republican Party and the conservative movement behind a nationalist, anti-globalist ideology that until recently would have been unthinkable for many Republicans.

"There is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag," Trump said to great applause from thousands of conservatives. "I'm not representing the globe. I'm representing your country."

He echoed ideas he has espoused in the past -- denouncing trade deals as the antithesis of "economic freedom," warning that the great cities of Europe have been ruined by mass immigration, denouncing intervention in the Middle East by both parties.

The Obama administration order "changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system," Sessions wrote Thursday to announce the reversal.

Feb. 23, 2017, 3:15 p.m.

The future path of the Republican Party is being debated in the halls of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland this week.

Will it be the party of Donald Trump, an outsider of the GOP establishment, or House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the definition of establishment? Or, perhaps, of Richard Spencer, a white nationalist leader of the so-called alt-right movement? (Spencer was kicked out of CPAC on Thursday.)

Trump is set to address the conference on Friday, and the conservative media are ready for the much-anticipated address.

“Tomorrow it will be TPAC when he’s here,” Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump told reporters Thursday.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, once a Trump foe, is urging conservatives to use the November election as a mandate.

“Do what you said you were going to do,” Walker said to attendees.

In the Fox News piece, which leads its website, it notes that leaders at the conference are hoping to use it to strategize about what they can accomplish and to better articulate their values at a time when the very definition of conservatism has seemed to waver.

Remember last weekend when everyone — including many Swedish politicians — were really confused about Trump’s comments at a recent rally?

“You look at what's happening last night in Sweden,” Trump, at a rally in Florida on Saturday, said about the Scandinavian country that has accepted large numbers of refugees. “Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible.”

Actually, not much happened in Sweden on Friday night. Trump said later that he had been referring to a broadcast on Fox News on that night. Still, recent riots in the country were covered extensively by conservative media.

This post notes a recent op-ed penned by Jimmie Akesson and Mattias Karlsson, both leaders of the Sweden Democrats, in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday supporting Trump’s characterization of a Muslim immigrant-led crime crisis in Sweden.

In it they write, “Trump did not exaggerate Sweden’s current problems. … If anything, he understated them.”

Trump Is Letting DREAMers Stay, And Rush Is Fine With That (Daily Caller)